Meanwhile…

If you’ve read this blog long, or know me personally, you’ll know I read comics. I’ve read them for most of my life, and it’s probably my favorite storytelling medium. If I could draw I’d totally make my own. Alternatively, if you are an artist and want to draw for me, let me know.

I’ve toyed with the idea of posting reviews of the week’s comics, but since I switched to ordering mine a month at a time, I don’t get them every week like I used to. This is a bit awkward, as I often have to duck spoilers all month, and can’t really participate in current discussions until weeks after the books have come out. Annoying, but comics are getting too expensive for me to buy them at full retail anymore. Looks like Marvel may be making the jump to 4 bucks an issue soon, for example.

Anyway, I frequently get asked which books I read on a regular basis. This list changes periodically, as I lose interest in some characters, or creative teams (that’s the writer and artists, for the uninitiated) switch out. There are whole lines of books I’ve picked up or dropped, and there are certain characters who I’ll probably never drop, regardless of quality or creators. It’s probably incredibly hard to understand unless you’re a comics reader.

I should note that this isn’t everything I read. There are some excellent series that I pick up in trade rather than issues, such as Walking Dead, Powers, and Ex Machina. I’m working on picking up all the Y The Last Man trades, though that series is done. It tends to be more mainstream books that I read in singles. Then I can stock up on the indy books in hardcover to make my bookshelf look smart.

There are also the odd mini-series that I read. I’m checking out Brubaker’s Incognito, and I buy anything that says Astro City on it (though those are rare nowadays, and it’s been a while since any new Astro City material). I’ve been keeping up with the big DC event, Final Crisis (though I haven’t gotten the last two issues yet, should be coming in today!).

I should also note that there is plenty of great stuff I don’t read, and a lot of it’s probably better than what I do. I’m not made of money, you know!

So, here are the ongoing books I pick up every month, at the moment at least (I’ll put in a jump in case you really don’t care and just want to skip it ): Continue reading